A Protégé of James Turrell Makes His New York Debut (With Lasers and Holograms, Naturally)

RELATED

For his fervent private collectors, James Turrell’s celestial skyspaces are an exercise in blind faith. More…

As a child growing up in Ohio, the artist Matthew Schreiber was fascinated by the lasers he saw in “Star Wars” and at the theme park Ontario Place in Toronto, which he visited with his family. Years later, he began incorporating them into his art practice, and today he will unveil those efforts, including a mesmerizing room filled with darting red beams of light, in his first New York solo show, “Sideshow,” on view through May 10 at Johannes Vogt.

The exhibition’s theme is rooted in the history of 526 West 26th Street, the building where the gallery is located, which hosted a nightclub called the Fun House in the early ’80s. “There’s videos, there’s people dancing,” Schreiber says. “Madonna used to go there early on.” He conceived of the show as a carnival-like experience, giving some pieces names that evoke roller-coaster rides (like “Dark Tumbler”) and incorporating such crowd-wowing effects as holograms and black lights. He was also riffing on the way the art world itself has turned into a step-right-up-and-get-your-thrills spectacle, with its marquee exhibitions and long ticket lines. “That’s the way museums are surviving now,” he observes.

The artist is no stranger to blockbuster museum shows. He polished his ability to build light art installations during 13 years working as the chief lighting expert for the artist James Turrell, which culminated in the three-museum retrospective that took place last year at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Guggenheim in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. After that nonstop year, Schreiber decided it was time to focus on his studio practice in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. “Thirteen years of anything is a long time, and I wanted to do my own thing and be home,” he says.

Schreiber’s work is rich with art-history references. “Dark Tumbler” is a sculpture that incorporates a darkroom door he acquired on eBay, which was once owned by the Life magazine photographer Art Shay. For “Photogram,” he took black and white photo paper, folded it into an origami dove in darkness, then exposed it to light while folded, finally pouring developing chemicals into it. “I’ve been trying to think of a solution for photography that’s along the lines of Man Ray,” he explains.

One of the highlights is a piece made of glowing ultraviolet tubes, dubbed “Gandalf” by Schreiber’s 10-year-old son, that resembles a three-dimensional blacklight poster; its shapes refer to an ancient geometry problem called Squaring the Circle. The artist, who studied holography at the Royal Collage of Art in London, also presents several impressive holographic works: “Salem Liquid 3″ references the fortune-telling technique — dropping egg whites in water — used by residents of Salem, Mass., during the famous witch trials. “The Mug of Aleister Crowley” is a hologram of a drinking vessel actually owned by the legendary occultist.

Schreiber is well aware of the flash value in his art, and chooses to embrace it. “People are attracted to things that are novel and you want to get off on doing something new or seeing something new,” he says. “I’m always circling back on that in my work.”

“Sideshow” will be on display at Johannes Vogt, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 205, in New York City through May 10; vogtgallery.com.